On The Mend...

Hello friends! I truly must apologize for my absence...I think this may be the longest I have ever gone without a blog post...but I do have somewhat of a good excuse. Remember the head cold/virus I told you I was suffering from???...well, I had a terrible/excessive dry cough for over a week...and then lots of extreme chest pain, like I broke a rib or two (or three)...turns out my viral infection turned into pleurisy...not fun at all and it has slowed me WAY down...yep, the girl who is always busy has pretty much been out of commission for several weeks (praying it didn't turn into pneumonia). I am slowly on the road to recovery, but that nagging cough is still hanging around and I still have some persistent chest pain...but thankfully, the exhaustion is starting to subside. Over the last few days, I have been slowly catching up on things (the piles are deep) and starting to get out of the house....and I have finally been able to get back to stitching (instead of sleeping). I posted the photo of my stitching nest on Instagram yesterday when I finally picked up a needle!

I have been doing some light spring cleaning in my studio and office...and trying to get organized...because I really want to focus on my BRD website redesign and some major sewing. My quilting scrap bin that is located under my cutting table is overflowing with good fabric scraps, so I have been putting my AccuQuilt Studio Fabric Cutter and some of my favorite new dies to good use and cutting piles of shapes for sewing. With my schedule, I have to make time to sew - when I have a few minutes, it's wonderful  to have a pile a basic shapes ready and waiting for piecing. Right now, I am obsessed with 1" equilateral triangles (perfect for really small scraps)...so I have been cutting them, sorting them by color, and placing them in poly bags in a basket by my sewing machine...then when I only have a few minutes, I can start piecing right away.

With my sick time downtime, I have also been working on my entries for this year's Quilt Block Design Contest...you know I enter every single year (and this year is definitely not an exception)...AccuQuilt has put together an incredible prize package...the best one to date...and it truly is a dream! I think I drooled a bit when I saw everything the winner receives this year...and included in the Grand Prize package - the winner selects a favorite Charity for AccuQuilt to donate $1,500 in the winner’s name...and, of course, you all know I am starting to do my fundraising for the Komen 3-Day in Dallas this November, so that would be HUGE! This year AccuQuilt has created a "design tool" that makes it super easy to draw your own design and enter for a chance to win! You can visit: http://www.accuquilt.com/block-contest to read all about the design contest and submit an entry...and of course, I will be asking all my friends and family to help me out by voting for my design(s) again this year! Here is a link to see my first entry: http://www.accuquilt.com/block-contest#!/entry/6665615...

Lastly, I have a current photo to share with you of Schatzi...with spring finally arriving (thank goodness!), we took her to the local park to play and do some training work (she is in training to become a certified therapy dog)...it is hard to believe she is a year old! She is definitely still a puppy, but is constantly learning new commands and happily walks 3 to 5 miles with me daily (when I am feeling up to it)...she is quite inquisitive and makes sure to keep me company throughout each day!

So now that I am finally on the mend, I will do my best to visit with you more often and share my creative endeavors...I have a nice long list of new projects just waiting to be created! Thank you for your patience with me over the last month - hopefully things will be back to "my normal" soon....